WOODLANDS WONDERS A.V. STUDENTS TO STUDY DESERT LIFE.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Joe Walker Middle School seventh-graders will study and help maintain the Prime Desert Woodlands, an oasis of native desert life amid urban development, under a $5,200 grant from Edison.

Students will study the preserve's flora and fauna, analyze animal scat -- or droppings -- and make field guides and footprint casts as part of a program aimed at helping middle-of- the-road students excel in science and prepare for college.

"It's an awesome opportunity for us," language arts teacher Virginia Irvin said. "We can lecture out of books, but we get an opportunity to be part of what's going on in the science community. Those are things they remember. That's what I call a real education."

The Prime Desert Woodlands contains such desert flora as Joshua trees, California junipers and creosote bushes on about 100 acres at Avenue K-8 and 35th Street West.

The site, developed by the city, has two miles of trails and an interpretive center.

Edison International selected Joe Walker as a winner in its New Era Awards competition. The awards recognize schools that use innovation to keep at-risk students engaged in school and focused on academic success.

The school was among 19 winners recently awarded a total of nearly $150,000 in the latest round of the company's annual competition for public and private schools, now in its 16th year.

James Beasley, an Edison community involvement program manager, said Joe Walker's program met the criteria for focusing on science and the environment.

"Another goal of the program is that we look at those programs that provide opportunities to what we call the underserved student, not just based on ethnicity but to the low-income student or student who will prosper by getting that extra opportunity or exposure," Beasley said.

The Joe Walker program will target 30 to 60 students in the college prep program AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, to lead the desert habitat conservation program, Irvin said.

AVID helps students in the "middle" whose grade-point averages range from 2.0 up to 3.0 and whose parents didn't go to college.

"We are teaching them how to be school leaders. These kids will be running the program, and it will involve all the seventh-graders," Irvin said.

Science teacher Kathleen Seargeant said the proposal was in part prompted by the need to familiarize students new to the area with their new environs.

"For what it's worth, this came out of a need because so many kids are moving here and they know so little about the high desert environment," Seargeant said. "We would say, 'Where's your jacket,' and they would say, 'It's not cold,' and then by the afternoon it's 30 degrees."

"We need to educate them about the weather, climate, what sort of organisms are indigenous here. Quite often they would say, 'It's ugly here.' They move from areas that are green and lush. We are hoping they get some appreciation of some of the things that are here."

The students will also visit the preserve to help keep it clean by picking up trash.

Plans call for students to explore the botanical gardens at the Huntington Library in San Marino and compare them with those in the Antelope Valley.

"When we are done with the projects, we wanted to go to the Huntington and do a compare-and-contrast with some of their more lush habitats and understand what's different and wonderful about our own habitat," Irvin said.

[e-mail]

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Students Luis Campos and Stephanie Rios, both 13, look at a specimen of a freshwater sponge Monday in teacher Kathleen Seargeant's science class at Joe Walker Middle School.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer